Clinton Avenue Historic District (Albany, New York)
The Clinton Avenue Historic District is a conservation area in Albany, New York in the United States. The Historic District covers an area of 28 acres on this street, between North Pearl Street (New York State Route 32) and Quail Street part of the U.S. Highway 9. This includes some road blocks on adjacent streets like Lark Street and Lexington Street.
The settlement of this district had its beginning by the Clinton Squares the plant at its eastern end, shortly after the opening of the Erie Canal. The writer Herman Melville spent a year of his life in one of the row houses on this square. The development of terraced houses has been the standard for urban development in a westerly direction during industrialization. Today, 92 % of the nearly 600 buildings in the historic district row houses in various architectural styles, but especially houses with an Italianate appearance, many of which were built as homes of the middle class from speculative intentions out. It is the largest concentration of such homes in Albany. With the exception of 20 buildings are all buildings within the district contributing properties.
Many are on the inside and the outside remains intact. The area was in 1981 classified by the city as a historic district and in 1988 the National Register of Historic Places ( NRHP) added. Urban decay still affects the district, and the city has used federal grants to carry out revitalization and stabilization measures.
Geography
The majority of the district extends along the 2.5 km long section of Clinton Avenue between Broadway and North Quail Street. In this area, the road rises from the flat shore area adjacent to the Hudson River to add the western neighborhoods steeply to the cliff, which is known as Sheridan Hollow and then more gently to the intersection with the North Quail Street, a total of 58 meters. Up to this point the road runs in a fairly large for the conditions in Albany Width - at its eastern end, where it picks up the traffic of Interstate 787 from the nearby Dunn Memorial Bridge, even with separate carriageways.
The historic district is therefore directly north of downtown Albany and the government buildings of the State at the Empire State Plaza. Other historic districts, about Arbor Hill, Broadway - Livingston Avenue and Ten Broeck Triangle, adjacent to the north.
The boundary of the district largely follows the rear property line of the parcels on both sides of Clinton Avenue, but there are pockets along side streets where similar houses were built.
At its eastern end, starting at the Palace Theatre, the district includes the western side of North Pearl Street (New York State Route 32) and the north eastern side of the modern Leo O'Brien Federal Office Building in. Three terraced houses along the south side of Livingston Street are also included; the remainder of this district is part of the Arbor Hill Ten Broeck Triangle Historic District. The area east of the intersection with Livingston Street is included in the Broadway - Livingston Avenue Historic District.
South of the intersection of Clinton Avenue and North Pearl Street, the two remaining row houses on Clinton Place are included. They are the two oldest buildings in the district. The property on both sides of the junction with the Ten Broeck Street are not included. Then the district boundary runs westwards along the back of the property at the Clinton Avenue to the intersection with the southern part of Lark Street, where U.S. Highway 9W branches off from Highway 9 to the south, leading to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The district boundary follows the Lark Street for several blocks to Elk Street and includes the existing buildings of nine row of houses on the north side of the Elk Street one east of Lark Street.
At the next intersection, the Henry Johnson Boulevard leads here to the south, turn U.S. 9 on the north leading Northern Boulevard, leaving the Clinton Avenue behind. The district boundary follows on the property lines of the Clinton Avenue to Lexington Avenue, where it includes on the western side of the road up to about half between First and Second Street the houses, as well as short rows of houses on either side of the First Street west of its junction with the Lexington Avenue. Subsequently, the district boundary runs along the Clinton Avenue for the rest of its course to the Quail Street, where 2 Judson Street heard the only reason for the district because it has a corner on one side to the Clinton Avenue.
The 70 acre ( 28 ha ) within the district boundaries are urban character and almost completely built-up, only few plots are vacant. In total there are 576 buildings, of which only 20 are considered not contributing to the historic character of the district. Most of these non- contributing buildings are modern commercial buildings such as supermarkets and gas stations. Of the 556 historically contributing buildings are 530 ( around 92 %) two - or three -storey terraced houses made of bricks, which were built in the course of a century and reflect different architectural styles. The rest of the historic ring buildings are formed by the theater, churches, an old police station and two schools.
History
The development of the Clinton Avenue from the northern boundary of the City of Albany, to the dense urban neighborhoods was parallel to the growth of the city during the period that is historically significant for the historic district which thus shows the result of changes in the economic importance of city between 1820 and 1931. This phase begins with the installation of the Clinton Square, and ends with the construction of the Palace Theatre at same intersection over a century later.
From colonial times to post-independence
As Albany in 1686 received the certificate of incorporation of the British, the later route of the Clinton Avenue was established as the northern border of the city. The country north of it was under the sovereignty of the van Rensselaer family. A decade before the American Revolution was Stephen van Rensselaer II directly north of the city surveyed the area and create a cadastral plan. After achieving independence, the area was in 1795 for the Town of Colonie.
The population in the area increased and planned roads were a reality. By 1815, about one thousand people were already living between the river and the road, which later became the Northern Boulevard, Albany so annexed the area and as Fifth Ward incorporated it into his city.
The development of the area increased, was completed as early 1820s the Erie Canal, which flows a short distance north of Albany in the Hudson River. 1828 made the residents an input for Common Council with the desire to improve the intersection of Clinton Avenue and North Pearl Street. This zone came under increasing attention from visitors to the city because it is located between the channel port and the Downtown. A small park, which was at that time considered to be one of the great achievements of the city center was built at this intersection. The installation of this park marks the beginning of the development of present-day historic district and its history.
Early 19th century
In the 1830s many of the dilapidated houses was demolished around the square from the colonial era and created the first row houses, with their ornamentation reflected the contemporary neo-classical architecture. Of these buildings, there are only two houses, 3 and 5 Clinton Place. Herman Melville lived 1843 in number 3
The row houses on Clinton Place set the standard for future development of the neighborhood, as the century progressed. It was a meeting of building traditions of the early Dutch settlers, in a long and narrow plot of land was taken almost entirely from the house and the more influenced by the English design, which was preferred by the residents of Albany in the early 19th century, as these a large part of New England from had moved to the West.
The North Pearl Street was completed at that time up to the Livingston Avenue and the first railroads reached the city. The tracks of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad led about one kilometer north of Clinton Avenue in the city. On her timber was transported from the lush forests in the Adirondack Mountains and in Western New York. The construction of the railroad sparked along the Clinton Avenue in the 1840s a building boom from. The oldest row houses along the street, the three buildings between the numbers 65 and 75, were part of a group of six buildings that made in 1845 to build speculative motives of the local landowner Thomas Ludlow.
In the 1850s, the Clinton Avenue was built mainly between North Pearl and Swan Street. The built in that time houses reflect early adaptations of the Italianate style reflected his preference for cornices with corbels. These style elements are usually made of sandstone before the American Civil War, then you used this wood. This style dominated the built at the Clinton Avenue row houses until about 1880; even today the majority of the buildings in the historic district is held in this style. The houses 133-143 Clinton Avenue from 1851 are an example of Italianate row houses of the Antebellum. The more complete row of houses 250-272 Clinton Avenue shows the application of this architectural style of the postwar period.
The population grew strong enough that School 5, the church now stands, was built in 226-228 North Pearl Street. The urge to built at the west end of Clinton Avenue continued later in the 1950s, when Erastus Corning more of the railway companies of New York to the New York Central Railroad summarized. To ensure the needs for the maintenance of the fleet of the new railway company, he let Clinton Avenue north to build a depot on the west side of the Northern Boulevard. This facility possessed east of Chicago has the largest stockyards in the United States. The city itself expanded in the 1960s, their horse-drawn railway to the west along the former Schenectady Turnpike, today's Central Avenue. Thus, the development of road blocks at the west end of present-day historic district was possible. Many of the houses clad with shingles were purchased from German Americans.
Late 19th century
Built in 1867, the city fire station at 126 Clinton Avenue. This was preceded by the 1870 annexation made the country on the western side of Northern Boulevard, bringing the entire Clinton Avenue was within the city limits. In 1872 the city took a horse-drawn tram line along the Clinton Avenue in operation, which leads from the North Pearl Street to Lexington Street, which the Downtown better association with this district. The area was thus more desirable and residential buildings gradually replaced the brick kilns that were previously there.
The decades of the Gilded Age brought a building boom along Clinton Avenue with it. Many of the remaining undeveloped parcels, especially in the western part of the road, were purchased and built for speculative purposes with terraced houses. Most of these were rented to people moving workers and craftsmen. The development progressed to the Lark Street, the first street west of Downtown Albany, which crossed the later filled-in Sheridan Hollow Gorge. After the annexation of the Lexington Street, a block was extended to the north and also arisen from brick built terraced houses.
Construction activity continued in the 1880s continued, and some of the previously incurred houses were torn down to make new buildings place. The Italianate style came slowly, and the builders were experimenting with the Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne Style. Hope Baptist Church, at the western end of the row of houses McPherson Terrace north of Clinton Avenue west of Judson Street is the most pronounced in Richardson Romanesque building within the district. The Queen Anne style is the basis for the bay window of the house 5 Wilson Street ( at the corner of North Pearl Street ) and for the series of identical houses with arched windows on the first floor in 152 ½, 154 and 154 ½, and for the house 168 Clinton Avenue with its protruding gazebo with gable roof. The two architectural styles blend together to create a brick with stone blocks Hauser series between Lexington and Robin Street. The neo-Gothic style in 1883 used in the construction of the former St. Luke's Methodist Church on the northwest corner of the intersection with Lexington Street.
Construction activity slowed in the 1890s because of the size of the area had already been built, so that new buildings limited primarily to filling the remaining vacant parcels. Among the most important of these additions was the completion of the east end of the McPherson Terrace.
20th century
Because of today's historic district was largely built as early as the 1890s, the architectural trends of the early 20th century had little effect on him. 1905, the intersection of Clinton Avenue and Lexington Avenue American Foursquare was built on the southwest corner and some more detached from stones and bricks emerged in the same decade on North Pearl Street. Most of the buildings that were built in the early 20th century, served public purposes, such as the 1911 -built neoclassical police station in 222 Pearl Street. The youngest contributing buildings of the historic district is established in 1931, the Palace Theatre at the intersection of Clinton Avenue and North Pearl Street, where his story began, and which the period ends, which is significant to the historic district.
The area remained the first half of the 20th century through a lively residential area. When, after the Second World War began suburbanization and many went out of the city, they were replaced by poorer residents, especially to the west of Northern Boulevard, which it could not afford to obtain loans or loans to renovate their homes. During the 1960s and 1970s, the area was first Anscheinungen of urban decay and there was vacancy and neglect of buildings.
The district was at no time goal of the planning of a comprehensive urban renewal. After a few breaks at its eastern end in the late 1970s, the area for Community Development Block Grants ( CDBGs ) qualified. The City of Albany, which had bought the Palace Theatre in 1969, dismissed in 1981, the area around Clinton Avenue and North Pearl Street as a historic district of. Some years later, the city council took 82 row houses between North Pearl Street and Northern Boulevard into a neighborhood stabilization program. These efforts culminated when the historic district was listed on the National Register in 1984.
Clinton Avenue today
New construction or expansion projects within the district must be evaluated by the Municipal Historic Resources Commission (HRC ). This is a group of nine citizens of the city that show an interest in the preservation and are determined by the mayor in this office. This stabilization efforts have not yet had an impact on the entire historic district. In some road blocks, especially west of the Northern boulevards, houses are still exposed to decay and some shop fronts are unused.